1. Dewey K, Hodgkinson M. The experiences of fathers who have a child with autism spectrum disorder: from birth to adulthood. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):1-13.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore fathers’ experiences of raising a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), taking into consideration how this experience fluctuates as their child develops from infancy to adulthood. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were used to investigate the experiences of fathers who have a young adult with ASD. Seven fathers participated in this study. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings Four themes were identified, these were: ubiquitous impact, divergent support, impeding factors and facilitating factors. Practical implications Findings from this study highlighted the pervasive impacts of having a child with ASD. This study highlighted the need to educate health-care professionals, the general public and prospective fathers. Creating “dads groups” could help to direct fathers towards other people who understand their situation. Finally, trialling methods to accelerate fathers’ acceptance, such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), could help to reduce psychological stress. Originality/value To date, most research largely focusses on mothers’ experiences, as mothers are typically seen as the primary caregiver. Previous research also tends to focus on the earlier years of life. This research addresses the often-overlooked topic of fathers’ experiences, investigating their experience of having a child with ASD from birth through to adulthood.

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2. Ryan TD, Brunson McClain M, Merrill A, Dahir N, Harris B, Irby SM. Preliminary investigation of interdisciplinary trainee’s improvement in knowledge about autism spectrum disorder. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):14-26.

Purpose Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often receive services from a variety of professionals. However, not all providers receive adequate training in ASD. The Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program includes a core competency of increasing knowledge about neurodevelopmental and related disabilities. This study attempted to assess trainees’ ASD knowledge and self-reported confidence in working with individuals with ASD and sought to understand if training through the LEND program increases these competencies. Additionally, the purpose of this study is to determine factors that predict ASD knowledge and self-reported confidence in providing services to this population, specifically in an interdisciplinary trainee sample. Design/methodology/approach Participants were 170 interdisciplinary LEND trainees during the 2017–2018 academic year. Participants across the USA completed online pre- and posttraining surveys. The survey included demographics, ASD knowledge, questions assessing training experiences, perceived ASD knowledge and self-reported confidence. Findings A one-way analysis of variance determined that there was a statistically significant difference in measured ASD knowledge across disciplines F(7, 148) = 5.151, p < .001. Clinical trainees (e.g. psychology, pediatrics and speech) exhibited more measured ASD knowledge than nonclinical trainees (e.g. neuroscience, legal). Additionally, training experiences, self-reported confidence and perceived ASD knowledge were predictors of measured ASD knowledge. Moreover, trainees increased their measured ASD knowledge, self-reported confidence and had more experiences with individuals who have ASD at the end of the training year. Originality/value These findings suggest that the LEND program may assist in the preparation of professionals to work with individuals with ASD. Training opportunities, including educational and practical experience, to train interdisciplinary providers who will work with individuals with ASD are advised.

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3. Amini F, Yee KW, Soh SC, Alhadeethi A, Amini R, Ng ESC. Awareness and perception of medical genetic services among Malaysian parents of autism spectrum disorders children: the lessons to be learned. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):27-38.

Purpose Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of complex neurodevelopmental disorders with uncertain etiology. Evidence shows that genetic testing can explain about 20% of cases. This study aims to assess the level of awareness and perception of medical genetic services among Malaysian parents with ASD children. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey using an interviewer-administered questionnaire was done among 111 parents of children with ASD from August 2017 to September 2019 in two clinics in Malaysia. Findings A majority of children with ASD (80.20%) were male and diagnosed at the age of 3–4 years old (47.80%). When the autistic child was born, most mothers and fathers were aged 26–30 (40.50%) and 31–35 years old (42.30%), respectively. Another child with ASD in nuclear and extended families was reported for 11.70% and 13.50%, respectively. Only 24.30% have seen a professional genetic consultant, and 19.8% have done genetic testing for affected children. The mean score of awareness of genetic services for ASD was 2.48 ± 3.30. Having medical insurance and another child with ASD in the nuclear family was significantly associated with a higher level of awareness (p = 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). Most of the participants have a positive perception of these services. Originality/value Regardless of demographic factors, participants have poor awareness of genetic services for ASD, likely because the primary physician did not recommend it upon diagnosis. Increasing health-care providers’ knowledge about the current potential of genetic testing for ASD and educational campaigns for the public are critical components of using available genetic tests to improve ASD management.

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4. Bashirian S, Soltanian AR, Seyedi M, Khazaei S, Jenabi E, Razjouyan K, Zarafshan H, Barati M, Afshari M. The psychometric properties of the Iranian version of Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) in children with autism spectrum disorder. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):39-45.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the validity of the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) in an Iranian population to determine its efficacy in identifying children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who parents have Persian-speaking parents. Design/methodology/approach A case–control study was performed in March until July 2020 in Hamadan city, Iran. The case group was children were examined by the clinicians used a coding scheme based on the DSM-IV criteria for ASD. The control group was all children in the family, including healthy siblings, were asked to participate in the study. The reliability, content and face validity were performed to assess the psychometric properties of the tool. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to evaluate the four-dimensional structure of the tool (Scores A, B, C and D). Statistical analysis was performed using AMOS for SPSS 21, and the statistical significant level was less than 0.05. Findings The quantitative content validity analysis revealed that the mean of content validity ratio (CVR) and content validity index (CVI) for all domains was 0.94 and 0.91, respectively. For CFA, four domains A, B, C and D were used and demonstrated a good fit (CFI = 0.92 and RMSEA = 0.06). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) in domains A, B (verbal), C and D were 100%. For domain B (non-verbal), the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV were 86.7%, 100%, 100% and 88.2%, respectively. Research limitations/implications This study showed that ADI-R has sufficient ability to discriminate between children with ASD and those with no psychiatric diagnosis, and it is a reliable tool in Iran. The sensitivity and specificity for correctly diagnosing ASD was high, regardless of the age and cognitive level of the examiner. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper on psychometric properties of ADI-R in children with ASD.

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5. Hemati Alamdarloo G, Majidi F. Stress in mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):46-59.

Purpose Most parents experience stress when their children are diagnosed with some kind of disability. This paper aims to compare the level of stress among mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Design/methodology/approach Research sample consisted of 150 mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders (50 mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder, 50 mothers of children with intellectual disability and 50 mothers of children with specific learning disorder selected by convenience sampling). The Stress Response Inventory was used for measuring stress. One-way analysis of variance, multivariate analysis of variance and Scheffe post hoc tests were used for data analysis. Findings The results showed that the stress of mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder was significantly higher than to the other groups of mothers. It was also observed that the stress of mothers of children with intellectual disability was significantly higher than the mothers of children with the specific learning disorder. Originality/value Therefore, designing and implementing preventive and interventional programs to decrease the stress of mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, especially mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder is necessary.

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6. Chen M, Kreibich S, Hyppa-Martin J. Teaching a child with autism to request help only when needed. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):60-70.

Purpose Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or other developmental disabilities are often reported to have challenges in well generalizing the newly learned communicative skills such as requesting help. Not requesting help when it is needed can hinder engagement and learning, whereas requesting help could also be socially inappropriate. This paper aims to offer a demonstration of applying general case instruction to teach a young child diagnosed with ASD to request help only when needed while concurrently increasing the child’s independence in task completion. Design/methodology/approach The demonstration adopted within-participant AB designs for one 5-year-old boy with ASD, with data collected across three tasks targeted for intervention and the other three tasks targeted for generalization probes throughout both the baseline and intervention phases. Dependent measures consisted of independent help request and independent task completion. Visual analysis was used to describe the results. Findings Results showed that the child with ASD learned to ask for help on difficult educational activities, while concurrently increasing his independence on these tasks; generalized the skill of requesting help by asking for help when he encountered other challenging novel tasks; and independently completed easy educational activities without requesting help. Originality/value The findings from this study may add to the limited literature that explored the generalization performance across tasks/activities in young learners with ASD, while demonstrating the feasibility of designing and applying general case instruction framework to enhance generalization performance for one individual learner.

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7. Robertson N, Qureshi A, Monk RL. The relationship between autistic characteristics, social engagement and executive function in a typical sample. Advances in Autism;2022;8(1):71-87.

Purpose This study aims to represent a first attempt to examine in a non-clinical population the interplay between social engagement, executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) within a social motivation theory framework. Design/methodology/approach A total of 170 participants (135 female; mean age = 19.01 and standard deviation = 1.27) completed measures of ToM (Faux Pas task), autistic traits (Autism Spectrum Quotient), social engagement (reward dependence subscale of the Temperament and Character Inventory), sociability and EF (both subscales of the Adult Temperament Questionnaire). Findings Path analyses found that EF, sociability and social engagement were negatively associated with autistic traits both directly and indirectly. Results indicate that EF may impact sociability and social engagement and their interaction may relate to the degree of autistic traits shown in a typical sample. However, ToM (as measured by the Faux Pas test) was not related to any of the other variables. Originality/value Sociability, social engagement and effortful control deficits may be linked to higher levels of autistic traits. These factors appear to form a hierarchy of factors underpinning autism spectrum disorder, with EF contributing to all aspects, followed by sociability and social engagement at a higher level. Future research examining in clinical populations the utility of a more integrated model of social motivation that incorporates EF appears warranted.

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